Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 4: River Rat My Morning Stout

Hello, friends.

For Day 4 of CCBW, we return to River Rat Brewing and their My Morning Stout. It pours virtually pitch black, but also has a surprisingly light-in-color head, just a very, very light tan. A lot of typical but well-executed stout flavors in this beer--notes of almost spicy cocoa along with hints of coffee and vanilla (both especially in the finish). These blend together along with a mild sweetness (possibly generated by the vanilla?). The finish is fairly smooth. Another quality beer from the folks at River Rat.

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 3: Swamp Cabbage Bald Cypress Porter LIVE

Day 3, and a sampling of a third of Columbia's breweries. Today we feature the Bald Cypress Porter from Swamp Cabbage Brewing Company. The porter poured pitch black with a very small amount of tan head. The very first impression on the sip was a cola-like flavor. That lingers for a bit, then resolves into something a little more dark fruity, then into a more typical cocoa flavor. There is also some kind of smoky bite at the very end, almost like a mesquite, or something like that. It's not off-putting at all, but a bit of a unique flavor.

Untappd begins strategic merger, able to go "to the next level"

Like many craft beer enthusiasts, I use the mobile app Untappd to track the beers I've had over the last few years. When you're reaching into the hundreds of beers (and surely thousands, in some people's cases), it's nice to have something keeping track of which beers you've had. Untappd is an app that looks good, is pretty well designed and, most importantly, is very stable--crashes of the app are incredibly rare, at least they have been on my series of iPhones. So, imagine my surprise to learn that the app has been a 5+ year a part-time labor of love for two gentlemen, Tim Mather and Greg Avola.

Now, these gentlemen have the opportunity to transition into full-time work on Untappd, by merging with Next Glass, which appears to be a drink recipe and analytic app. The merger will not only allow Mather and Avola to work on Untappd full-time, but will allow for the hiring of additional staff, which will help increase feature development speed and means the app "will get new updates, cool features, and even more badges, faster."

Congratulations to the guys at Untappd. I've been a fan and user of the app for years, and hope this results in many great changes in the future!

Link: Full statement from Untappd

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 2: Conquest Der Alte Fritz

We continue the reviews for Columbia Craft Beer Week with the one local brewery I have yet to mention in this blog: Conquest Brewing Company and what they call their "dark rye brown". Der Alte Fritz is probably my preferred choice from Conquest. It pours a solid brown and has a light-to-medium body. It's a pretty standard brown ale, with lots of malt flavor and and a mild amount of sweetness, but also featuring a hint of pepper and some other spiciness coming out of the rye. The malt elements tend to be much more prevalent than the rye components, but it makes for a tasty beer.

Columbia Craft Beer Week, Day 1: River Rat Winter Warmer LIVE

Here in Columbia, today marks the first day of Columbia Craft Beer Week, one of two craft beer celebrations held in Columbia each year. This week features assorted events like tap takeovers, beer dinners, and special releases from many of the city's restaurants, pubs, and breweries. The week culminates with the World Beer Festival next Saturday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

My own little contribution to CCBW will be a review of a different Columbia-brewed beer everyday through Friday. We begin today with River Rat's Winter Warmer. Pouring a clear reddish-gold, and having a pretty full body, this beer has just a hint of sweetness. It utilizes cinnamon and "sweet orange peel" as part of its recipe. Both come through, especially the cinnamon as part of that usual winter-ish spice profile. But neither is overpowering, and blend well with the malt profile that comes through later in the taste. Overall, a very nice beer.

Beers in Review: A couple more hoppy beers, plus one decidedly not

Today, we jump into a couple more hoppy beers, plus a well-regarded beer from Allagash.

We'll start with the hoppy beers, leading with Seminar Brewing's Alpha Crucis IPA. Alpha Crucis pours a dark gold color. The hops take the lead with piney flavors, along with a hint of citrus. The hops generate a mild amount of bitterness, nothing overpowering. As it warms up, the finish becomes more fruity, but overall it has a nice balance of hops and malt.

Next up is the Foothills Brewing Jade IPA, so named for its use of New Zealand's Jade hop, a hop that I don't recall having seen before. Most notable is the complex hop flavor profile generated by the Jade along with Citra and Chinook. The result is citrusy and spicy or peppery notes, along with a hint of resin, perhaps. There is also a bright fruitiness and a decent amount of bitterness. As it warms, it becomes more bitter and citrusy (especially lemony--that sourness might contribute to the increased bitterness). Also some dank flavors as it warms. A really neat, quite unique IPA.

Finally, what I would call Allagash Brewing Company's flagship beer, Allagash White, their traditional Belgian wheat beer. To me, this beer is very straight forward. It pours a pale straw color and is slightly hazy. There were spicy or peppery flavor notes, along with banana, cloves, and orange, and it was a little bit sweet. This beer has won multiple awards over the years, and really takes the wheat beer concept up a notch.

Beers in Review: A couple of hoppy beers

We start off with a collaboration. Evil Twin Brewing has always been among the more eccentric entities in the craft beer scene. This weekend, I tried a collaboration with 7venth Sun Brewery, their Citra Sunshine Slacker. Hops take center stage in this session IPA with complex flavors and a very delicate balance. Citrus fruits, especially grapefruit, and a little bit of dankness came out of the hops. There wasn't a ton of bitterness, and no sweetness at all to me. As the IPA warmed up, the hops opened up, and there was almost a hint of smokiness, but it wasn't at all off-putting.

Next up was Sierra Nevada Brewing Company's Hoppy Roots. Given Sierra Nevada's typical beer crafting, and with this beer's name, I was very surprised to find this beer wasn't super-hoppy! In fact, I found this beer to be incredibly balanced, almost to the point of being malt-forward pale ale. Dank and swampy hops contributed to the flavor, and opened and bittered up a bit as it warmed. There was also a dark fruit or almost red wine flavor in the back end. Overall, a pleasantly surprising beer from one of the craft beer titans.

Beer in Review: Keeping it in the family

We start with a disclaimer...

The beer in this review is a home brew, known as Coyote Cool. It is brewed by a long-time (like, WAY longer than I've been alive) friend of the family. In general, when I am in such situations that will require disclaimers, I will make every attempt to be fair and objective in those reviews. I'm pretty sure I nailed that here. Perhaps you all may disagree. That's cool. Let's get to it.

This is Coyote Cool's IPA, one of his first attempted bottlings. To start out, there is a moderate amount of hop bitterness--definitely present, and lingering, but not too overpowering. As it warms up, the malt flavors start to open up, resulting in a better overall balance as it warms. There is also some mild sweetness mixing with the hops. Overall, a very solid IPA. Word is, a Black IPA is on the horizon from Coyote Cool. Watch this space.

Beers in Review: A miscellaneous pair

Another beer I had while at the parents' place for the holidays was Philadelphia-based Yards Brewing Company's Love Stout. Really solid overall, it pours a beautiful inky black, and doesn't have a ton of body. Flavors are fairly standard for stouts, but really quite delicious; cocoa notes take the lead, along with a hint of coffee. Toasted malts are also integrated into the flavor profile. A really well done stout.

Now, we cross 3 time zones to the West Coast's Firestone Walker Brewing Company, and their well-regarded Union Jack IPA. A pale gold-ish color, there are some hops with dank and citrus notes. The Union Jack sports lots of flavor with mild fruit and malty sweetness. Maybe a bit of alcohol is present (7.5% ABV), but it certainly doesn't detract. If it were any sweeter, it might push into the Double IPA territory. Overall, really great with a major hop punch.

Beers in Review: Hanover, PA, brewing capital of the world? Part 2

As we continue the tour of the bustling beer production epicenter of Hanover, PA, population about 15,000, we move on to a bistro that has a whole lot going on, as well as couple of tasting rooms.

Warehouse Gourmet Bistro and Brew Pub is brewing beer under the Warehouse Craft Brewing label, in addition to their already-established restaurant and catering business. During dinner, I had their Small Town Brown. They say it's closer to a porter, and I found that to be fairly accurate. The pint I had was super-carbonated, almost to the point of harshness and interfering with the flavors. Once I got used to it, I found it to have pretty straight forward characteristics: malty and roasty with hints of cocoa. Overall, pretty solid beer--I'd love to give this another try, see if the carbonation isn't quite as harsh the second time around.

The next brewery visited was Aldus Brewing Company, starting with their Olde Factory IPA. There was a fruitiness, along with a fairly high alcohol content (7% ABV), that made this beer feel more like a Double IPA. Mild hops were present, but the generally dominant flavor was that of dark fruit sweetness. The next beer I reviewed is also sweet, but intentionally so--we'll get to that. In general, even in beers I merely sampled, everything seemed to be on the sweet side. I imagine this is a play to their audience, though it's not necessarily my favorite.

The second beer was called Frankenbru, and is a fruit ale. Obviously, many sweet flavors in this beer, most notably apples, the core of the fruit ale. Also has some maple syrup sweetness, which tended to linger, and the beer had a low-to-medium body. Again, with the sweetness, these were not necessarily my favorite beers to taste, but I certainly respect what they are doing--these are solidly-made beers.

The final beer of our tour is not from Hanover, but a short distance away in York, PA. Crystal Ball Brewing Company has a brand new tasting room that we got to experience that was notable in that we were mere feet away from all of the brewing equipment (and not behind glass or walls, like some small breweries). Their Cold Weather is a black wheat ale that is probably perfect now that the Christmas week heat wave is over and it's actually cold up there. Also somewhat sweet, but not that surprising, given this falls into that "winter warmer" category of beers. Also, the cranberry infusion contributes to that sweetness. A beer with low-to-medium body, it poured a deep deep ruby color that was quite beautiful. The cranberries gave the beer a tartness that cut through some of that still-present but not overpowering sweetness. Still, that sweetness did linger after the drink. Overall, a really nice, well-executed beer.

After sampling several of the breweries in York County (and even including ones I've visited previously like Liquid Hero Brewery, the beer scene in my old home is really terrific. Add to it some of the region's nationally-notable breweries like Troegs and Victory, and this south-central Pennsylvania region really is booming for craft beer.

Beers in Review: Hanover, PA, brewing capital of the world? Part 1 (Miscreation Brewing Company)

Continuing checking out the beers of my old hometown, York County, PA, I've discovered that the small town of Hanover has no less than 4 microbreweries. Today, I'll be focusing on Miscreation Brewing.

We'll start out with a couple of similar beers. The first is called (and this is accurate) Spweach Impwediment. A pale wheat ale, this ale pours a hazy straw color, and is a pretty light beer overall. Peaches are used in the brewing process, and come through strongly in the first half of the sip. Later on, there are some spice notes, such as cinnamon or all-spice, but the brightness of the peaches doesn't really evoke the pumpkin/fall beer feeling I get from most beers containing those spices. The spices also are more subtle than is typical, so I really enjoyed their presence in the Spweach.

Next is what could be considered a cousin of Spweach, a wheat wine called Mush Mouff. Pouring an apricot color, peaches are also a heavy component of this wheat wine, as are raspberries. Both fruits are quite prominent in this straight-forward wheat wine. It has a higher alcohol content than the Spweach, and there is a slight hint of a booze note throughout, but nothing strong or overpowering.

Beer number 3 is their IPA, Powder Keg. A straight forward American IPA where dank hops explode at the outset, and the hop flavor and hop bitterness tend to hang around throughout the entire sip, and even afterwards. Also some fruitiness hanging around in the middle of the sip, but the hops are the big player in this IPA.

The final beer is The Conjuring, an American Black Ale. This beer has a good body and powerful flavors. It is roasty and smoky (perhaps a little too much overall in that regard) with a hint of bitterness. Cocoa is also quite the prominent flavor. Overall, this black ale has big, bold flavors, and can be quite enjoyable if the smokiness doesn't get to you.

Miscreation is doing a lot of really good things in the Pennsylvania beer scene. I really enjoyed their space in the square in Hanover, and I had some really great beers there. Hoping they keep it up!

Beers in Review: They are making beer in my hometown, Part 2 (More Black Cap)

In writing my last post, I feel like I may have given the impression that I was lukewarm on Black Cap's beers. I assure you, this is very much not the truth. Regarding the three beers I reviewed on Monday, the Cream Ale is intentionally a fairly basic ale, and Saisons are not necessarily at the top of my list for preferred beer styles. Of the two Saisons, I liked the Rye better than the seasonal Saison de Gui.

Today's final two Black Cap beers are really quite excellent, including a Porter that may have been the best beer I had while I was up in Pennsylvania. But we begin with an IPA.

The Hop Scramble IPA matches my own personal palate very well. It is a clean IPA, with moderate bitterness from dank hops, a bitterness which tended to hang around in my throat as I continued to drink and/or the beer got warmer. This wasn't a bad thing, but it's not something I experience often. I was also getting some spicy or perhaps pepper notes. Overall, a very good IPA that doesn't go overkill on the hop bitterness.

The final beer from Black Cap is the General Gates Porter. As mentioned above, I tasted more than a dozen local microbrews during my time in Pennsylvania, and this was probably the best I had. The beer is straight forward with lots and lots of chocolate and cocoa notes that make it truly a delicious beer. Other tasting notes include a hint of coffee and roasty and maybe somewhat smoky malts. Nice body to this beer, as well. Overall, very well done.

I also had a chance to taste their Imperial General Gates Porter. While I tried some side-by-side comparisons, I didn't really have enough of the Imperial to make a lot of judgments, other than notably increased boozyness.

Beers in Review: They are making beer in my hometown, Part 1

So, I return to my old home of York County, Pennsylvania to see the family, and the whole damn place has apparently become a microbrewing hot bed! A rural-suburban county (population: just over 400,000) about an hour north of Baltimore, just on the PA/MD border, the county boasts at least a half-dozen commercial microbreweries!

The first brewery I experienced with my parents (hi, guys!) was in my hometown of Red Lion (population: 6300). The folks at Black Cap Brewing Company converted the old post office downtown into a brewery and small brewpub, and through the power of flights, I was able to sample most of the 8 beers they have on tap. I'll cover 3 of their beers right now, then 2 with some additional notes later on this week.

We'll start with the Cream Ale, the most basic of their selections. The goal is to play to the macrobrew crowd with something better, and they do a nice job achieving that. The Cream Ale is a crisp, clean pale lager-type that has significantly more flavor (most notably some mild fruity notes) than what you'll find in the macro pale lager category.

Next up is the Rye Saison. The Belgian-style sweetness is obvious from the outset, along with some hints of fruit. There are also some spicy and crackery/grainy notes coming from the rye that blend with the peppery notes from the style. Saisons aren't quite my thing (despite 2 in this review), but this one was pretty enjoyable.

Finally, another Saison, their Saison de Gui. This is their Christmas seasonal, and I found it to be very ambitious. The added ingredients to this beer served to make the standard Saison aspects get cranked up to 11. The ginger is subtle but certainly present, and adds an additional bite to the peppery quality. Cloves and honey added to this Saison almost made it a tad oversweet, but I got used to it as time went on. The use of those ingredients, especially the honey, almost invoked a mead-like flavor for me. There was a whole lot going on in this beer.

Later this week will feature a couple more from Black Cap, including a very good IPA and an excellent porter.

I promise I'm not dead.

Fret not, loyal readers, if there are any!

Greetings from Pennsylvania. Another wonderful Christmastime has passed with my wonderful family (at this point, I am legally obligated to say "Hi, Mom!").

Expect many write-ups about York County and Pennsylvania beers in the coming week, starting either tomorrow or Monday.

To hold you over, I jumped on Facebook yesterday and gave a brief little snippet about AB-InBev's newest member in their "High End", which is a name that feels kind of insulting to me.

See you soon!

-J

Columbia's River Rat Brewery expanding

We just discussed a beer from the local River Rat Brewery on Sunday, so I was very excited to see a report in Columbia's The State newspaper about River Rat's expansion plans for 2016, an expansion that will allow them to more than double their production capacity and add a canning line and a food truck to their operation.

The expansion is seen as very necessary, as they would likely max out their production capabilities in 2016. The facility additions will ensure they have enough capacity for the future.

Congratulations to River Rat Brewery on their success!

Source: The State newspaper

Beers in Review: Two beers with a whole lot going on

A couple of beers still unwritten about from the weekend. First is Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace saison. It is named after a rare Japanese hop strain of the same name that was recently reintroduced to the hop supply thanks to farmers in Washington state. It pours a deep golden color, has a pretty light body, and has a pretty unique flavor profile. It contains a lot of fruity sweetness that blends with lemongrass notes, signs of that Sorachi Ace hop. Add to it some citrus notes, most notably lemon, and you have a complex saison that is very much worth drinking.

Our second beer is Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's Sixty-One, a hybrid ale combining their famous 60-Minute IPA with the "must" (pressed grape seeds and stems--thanks, Dad!) from Syrah red wine grapes. The wine influence is evident from the pour, as it is a ruby red to lightish red wine color. I wasn't getting a ton of aroma from my glass--certainly some red wine-like notes. The flavors were very balanced with toasty malts and hops combined with slight wine notes that were less evident in the sip came through more in the aftertaste. Overall, another very complex beer.

Christmas/New Year's Programming Notes

So, what will the next week look like, blog-wise? Excellent question, you few readers!!!!

Expect an entry on Monday or Tuesday with a couple more beers from this week.  I'll be travelling to Pennsylvania in the back half of this week to spend the holiday with the family (hi, guys!). After Monday/Tuesday, I'd say the next blog entry will be next Sunday or Monday. I hope to have a lot of Pennsylvania breweries and beers to write about next week. The New Year's holiday should have a minimal impact on blogging, as I'll return to South Carolina before the New Year's holiday.

Also, look for Pourly Reviewed Beer video reviews starting in January 2016! Thanks, everyone!

Beers in Review: Two seasonals and a local

Beer seasons move so quickly. It's always a tad disconcerting to see Samual Adams put up their pumpkin beers in JULY. And the excuse they gave me a few years back was that they "didn't make enough summer seasonal", so they decided to just ship the next seasonal. If that's their business plan, so be it. But I personally disagree with that sentiment.

But I digress. The point is, given Christmas is nearly upon us, we've moved out of the cinnamon/nutmeg/clove/all-spice holiday beers that dominate the 4th quarter of the calendar year and into the true winter season: heavier styles with typically high alcohol content, and typically darker styles like porters and stouts, and old ales or strong ales from more-ambitious brewers. We'll get to a couple of old ales later.

First up is the local, which is a bit of a revisit. I first did a quick Beer Flight fly-by of River Rat's Broad River Red in October while I was getting caught up on my beer tastings. I revisited the beer to bring more detail this time around. So, let's get to it. Broad River is among the tastier reds I've had. Malts dominate the make up of this ale, resulting in some grainy, toasty flavors followed by caramelly sweetness. It has a light-to-medium body, and is very smooth and easy-drinking. Arguably, this might be my favorite beer out of my favorite hometown brewery.

The first of our winter seasonals is Southern Tier Brewing Company's Old Man Winter. The Old Man pours a reddish brown color, and contained hints of caramel, nice dark fruit sweetness, and additional boozy sweetness. Piney hops also were present, and contributed a fair amount of hop bitterness to the taste.

The second seasonal was Great Divide Brewing Company's Hibernation Ale, which poured a muddy brown color. It contained a whole lot of boozy sweetness (coming in at 8.7% ABV) and not a lot of body to me. Flavors included coffee hints along with caramel and toffee sweetness. Roasty maltiness comes through in the finish of the taste, and remains in the aftertaste. The Hibernation Ale to me seemed more indicative of the kinds of styles that tend to come out during this early calendar year season.

Beer in Review LIVE: In which I jump on board the "Star Wars" train.

So, I first saw it in this week's Free Times, Columbia's outstanding weekly alternative newspaper, and I'm sure they're not the only ones, given tonight's/tomorrow's release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". One of Westbrook's fall releases is Dark Helmet, a Schwarzbier/German-style black lager. This beer utilizes the very funny Mel Brooks "Star Wars" spoof, "Spaceballs", as is obvious in the beer name and the fact that it is a SCHWARZbier. The description on the label adds to the punniness.

So let's get to it. It pours pitch black, or damn close to it. Aroma came through as very roasty, almost to the point to burnt, and some hints of chocolate. The sip is much more generous. It has a medium body, and the chocolate comes through much more in the taste than in the smell. The taste also has strong roasty malt notes that provide some bite, but does not push too far like in the aroma. Coffee is also a notable player in the taste. Goes down fairly clean, and you're left wanting to take another sip.

I'd had Dark Helmet once before a couple of years ago, and wasn't super-impressed. This was a far better drinking experience than the last time.

Beers in Review: A local beer, and a very not-local beer

Let's start with the local: Holy City Brewing's Chucktown Follicle Brown. This was a commemorative beer brewed for the Holy City (Charleston) Beard and Moustache Society, and it shows on the can:

Yeah.

Moving on to the beer, it has a medium body and is quite delicious. Nice chocolate notes, combined with a faint burnt flavor and considerable maltiness, all rolled together into a chocolate cake kind of thing for me. There was a mild hop bitterness in the middle of back of the sip, but the prevalent flavors for me were the chocolate and malts. Really delicious.

The second beer today is California-based (but likely Chicago-brewed) Lagunitas Daytime Ale. Referred to as a "Fractional IPA", the theme to me overall was "light". The beer poured to a very light straw color, and was see-through. Flavor-wise, they were there, but not dominant: some mild piney hops combined with, to me, a bit of a straw or grainy flavor. There's nothing bad about this beer. Combined with its ABV (4.65%), it executes the "session IPA" concept very well.